It has been a busy weekend, good, but busy. I got to chaperone a Youth 2000, pick up a quarter of grass-fed beef, chaperone again, and see the new Harry Potter movie with two of my kids. This week will be busy, too, but still good.
This week is what I commonly refer to as hell week. My husband is a retail manager, and after today, I will not see much of him, except Christmas day, until Mid-January. I’m used to it, but it stinks. I look so forward to a peaceful Christmas, but we rarely get one, and this year looks worse than normal.
I love our families, but for Holidays, they make me insane. Despite the fact that I have sung 11:30 Mass every week, and feast day for 6+ years, they seem to forget this fact and plan Christmas ( and Easter!) for 10am. Fun times. We get there after the food is gone, very hungry, tired (we leave our house for Mass at 10am, and begin our fast at 9) and desiring to relax. Keep in mind, my husband has worked 30 days of insanity by Christmas.
I’m considering ditching them. yep, skipping the big family celebration in lieu of just the 5 of us. Last year, it was the same scenario, and everyone in our house was upset. Before the kids could eat, they had to have pictures, and then open presents, which they got yelled at for doing the “wrong way”. We got home and had to scrounge to find food to eat on Christmas day, it as not dreamy or relaxing, it was stressful and upsetting. As a family we made a pact to not do the same thing again.
Fast forward to this year, where it is looking like it will be even worse. The family is ending the festivities at 3. Meaning we will only have 1 hour, if even. That brings me to the question above, is it wring to ditch the larger family for a day of peace and joy with the smaller one. Talk amongst yourselves….
3 comments:
Ditch 'em. Totally not worth it.
We are finding the same issues with our family as well. And we are 3hrs away from them.
So this year we are staying home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And are really excited about it.
We can't live our lives around others. And it's just not worth the stress and mess to the kids. We try year after year and we fail year after year. We look at each other and try and process the disaster that just happened and it's not possible. So we gave up. I don't want our kids to remember Thanksgiving/Christmas with craziness and stressed out parents.
I hope you guys can find some peace this season.
I feel a bit bad, my favorite of the 7 sisters-in-law is trying so hard to accommodate us, but it is still very likely we are taking a pass this year. I'm hosting Thanksgiving, and hardly anyone (a mere 15 people vs. 35)is coming. The real solution would be to move far enough away that we can use travel as an excuse to not make it in time, I hear the state capital is nice.
We do Christmas/Easter with just our family. That's how it was growing up and I've continued that. It's a special time for our family unit. The kids can enjoy their presents without having to race out the door. I can make a family meal without much stress since we'll be the only ones that know how it goes. We will see family but not on those sacred days. That's our time to celebrate and relax as a family.
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